The present invention relates to an apparatus for suctioning and collecting water surface flotage including oil, pollutants, floating debris and the like. Various improvements have been made on apparatus of this kind, but it is difficult to suction and collect only the flotage on the water surface, and the general interest centers on how to minimize the volume of water entrained with a suctioned flotage.
A flotage suctioning apparatus is disclosed by the present inventor in U.S. Pat. No. 4,305,830. In that patent, the apparatus is equipped with an intake port to guide the flotage backward. Being stationary, that intake port cannot satisfactorily guide the surface flotage when the waves are high. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,006,082, 4,100,072 and 4,111,811 describe other flotage collection apparatus.